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Wednesday, May 13, 2020

A model developed by Alan Turing can help explain the spots on these astoundingly diverse flowers—and many other natural patterns as well, as Katherine J. Wu, Boston-based science journalist reports.

The monkeyflower species Mimulus pictus, with a unique pattern displayed on the petals.

Scientists who study
monkeyflowers sometimes feel as though the plants are looking back at
them. The blooms are said to resemble the faces of playful monkeys—hence
the name—complete with a speckled central region that looks like a
gaping mouth, helping bees zero in on their nectar-rich targets.

“It's like a friendly smile indicating safe harbor for pollinators,” says Benjamin Blackman,
a plant biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. By
attracting these pollinating insects, the speckled petals help ensure
the plants will go on to bloom another day.

“The color contrast makes pollination more efficient, more effective,” says Yaowu Yuan, a biologist at the University of Connecticut...

Mimulus mysteries

With models that simulate the colorful clash between activator and repressor, Yuan and Blackman can reproduce the freckles of Mimulus plants.
But there’s almost certainly more to the story. “It’s a simple model,”
Yuan says. “But if I’ve learned anything in biology, it’s that … in a
real biological system, it’s never going to be as simple as that. The
details will always be different.”Read more... Source: National Geographic

Fiona McDonnell, Director of Customer Retail at Amazon UK explains, As a parent under lockdown, I count myself among the many thousands of
people who have added ‘home schooling’ to their list of responsibilities
at home, at least temporarily. I take my hat off to teachers who do
this normally.

Photo: via Getty Images

Reflecting on the way we educate children and engage them
in a subject like numeracy, many more of us will have become aware of
the challenges involved in building and maintaining core skills. These
are skills which set the next generation on a path into the future world
of work.

But as we celebrate National Numeracy Day, I was reminded of some shocking statistics about the reality of numeracy in the UK.

Independent
charity National Numeracy reported that low numeracy costs the economy
around £3.2bn per year, nearly half of all working-age adults have the
numeracy level of a primary school child, and three quarters of working
adults would struggle to pass a maths GCSE.

That represents a serious challenge for both employers and employees
alike – especially when considering the extent to which numeracy
underpins the technology that shapes the modern world...

At the same time, maths plays a role in all our everyday lives. You
might be measuring the front room for a new sofa, budgeting the weekly
food shop or splitting the bill over dinner. Good numeracy also helps us
find the best deals on financial products like mortgages, business
loans and insurance.

So to build a strong workforce of numeracy-empowered people, we all need to take action both collectively and individually. Read moreSource: City A.M.

When you’re in a medical emergency, you don’t typically think of
calling a statistician by Alice Richardson, Associate professor, Australian National University, Jessica Kasza, Senior lecturer, Monash University and Karen Lamb,

However, the COVID-19 outbreak has shown just
how necessary a clear understanding of data and modelling is to help
prevent the spread of disease. One person understood this a long time ago. Were she alive today,
Florence Nightingale would understand the importance of data in dealing
with a public health emergency.

Nightingale is renowned for her career in nursing, but less well
known for her pioneering work in medical statistics. But it was actually
her statistical skills that led to Nightingale saving many more lives...

A trailblazer for women In 1858, Nightingale’s achievements in statistics were recognised by
the Royal Statistical Society in the UK, when she became the first woman Fellow of the Society.

At one time, the term “algorithm” was reserved solely for
computer programmers and mathematicians by MrFixItsTips.

BETTING ALGORITHMS

It is now commonplace
throughout numerous sectors, notably online gambling.

From commodity-based investment platforms to bookmakers that have the
capability to obtain the latest odds in terms of an upcoming horse
race, the average consumer is now able to take advantage of these unique
digital entities.

Even those who are relatively unfamiliar with how algorithms function
can still leverage numerous advantages. How are these lines of code
impacting the online sports sector and what might we expect in the
future?

Smarter Than You May ThinkAny algorithm is heavily designed around the notion of probabilities. From a very basic standpoint, they are engineered to accurately predict a specific behaviour based off of any data that is present. For instance, an algorithm can be used to determine how the value of a certain stock may change within a 24-hour period...Already Making Their Presence KnownMost consumers are unaware of how common algorithms have become.
Every time an individual searches for a subject on Google, the most
relevant results based off of past searches will be displayed. These are
normally referred to as “predicted algorithms”.

Smartphone apps will be recommended to individuals as a result of
their past interests or purchases. Certain games may also use algorithms
to present the player with more challenges.Read more...

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

When talking about the current COVID-19 epidemic, many tend to mention the 1918 flu pandemic that also swept across the world.

In this 1918 photo, volunteer nurses from the American Red Cross tend to influenza patients in the Oakland Municipal Auditorium, used as a temporary hospital. Photo: courtesy Library of Congress via The Associated Press

“Both
viruses spread rapidly to all areas of the world, although some people
in 1918 had partial immunity to that strain of influenza,” said Ann
Carmichael, a professor emerita at Indiana University-Bloomington’s
Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine. “They were
older and/or lived in some rural areas where the strain of influenza
prior to 1889-91 still circulated. So, 1918 was devastating for younger
adults.”

The 1918 flu pandemic was caused by an H1N1 virus with
genes of avian origin, according to information from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Although there is not universal
consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide in
1918 and 1919...

The pandemic is also known as the Spanish flu, though the exact origin of the flu is not fully known.

“It
became the Spanish influenza because Spain didn’t join the war, and
thus reported the flu in newspapers months before others did,”
Carmichael explained.Read more... Source: The Herald

A UMD faculty member's expertise illuminates the impact of social distancing during a pandemic by Richard Buckalew, Assistant Professor of Mathematics.

Duluth's Portman Park during COVID-19

1. What does the math tell you about the impact of social distancing?The math tells us that, given all the complex ways that people
can interact and spread the pathogen, reducing this by even relatively
small amounts can have a huge impact on the felt reality of an
epidemic.

In the real world, that translates to two things: We need fewer
interactions with others, and when interaction must happen, we need
safer ones – i.e., social distancing. And we need people who are
contagious (‘testing’) or who might be (‘tracing’) to self-isolate and
take more precautions than they otherwise would. Small changes in those
two factors can have huge effects on the trajectory of the model...

3. What else would you like people to know? What I’d really like is for people to get to know their
friendly neighborhood epidemiologist. Or mathematician, or whomever.
People get into epidemiology, or epidemiological modeling, because they
want to make the world a better place. When people have questions, I
want them to feel empowered to ask someone who would know – and to know
the difference, because unfortunately there are plenty of people who
pretend to be experts when they aren’t.Read more... Source: UMM News

The second year of World’s Women in Mathematics Day will be celebrated
through video conferencing on May 12, which is the birthday of late
Maryam Mirzakhani, the Iranian-born genius mathematician who shattered
stereotypes about women's ability in mathematics, notes Faranak Bakhtiari, Tehran Times.

Maryam Mirzakhani

At 2018 World Meeting for Mathematics held
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Iranian Mathematical Society proposed
designating Maryam Mirzakhani’s birthday (May 12) as a day for
celebrating women in mathematics. The proposal was approved.

Still, some believe that studying math is
not appropriate for a girl, and to justify their beliefs, they are
making biological differences between men and women.

They generally refer to global scientific
awards for their claims. Awards that are less than 200 years old, while
many women throughout history have struggled with the stereotype and
their work is a refutation of statements denying women's ability in
mathematics.

The presence of women in mathematics has a
long history. From Hypatia, a Greek mathematician who lived about 1,500
years ago, to 19th-century English mathematician and programmer Ada
Lovelace. Iranian women have also had a hand in the world of mathematics
for centuries, from Bi Bi Monajemeh Nishaburi, the seventh-century
mathematician and astronomer to Farideh Firoozbakht, who became famous
for her theory of Firoozbakht's conjecture on the distribution of prime
numbers in 1982. But perhaps no Iranian female mathematician in the
world has been mentioned as much as Maryam Mirzakhani...

In memory of Mirzakhani

The United Nations Women, a UN entity for
gender equality and women's empowerment, have honored seven women
scientists, including Iran’s Maryam Mirzakhani, who have made
significant contributions to the field of science, highlighting their
world-altering and trailblazing careers. The National Academy of
Sciences of the United States has launches an award named after Maryam
Mirzakhani for her efforts and achievements, which are awarded each year
to exceptional contributions and advances in mathematics.

What exactly is driving the IT skills crisis? Simon Ratcliffe, Principal Consultant at Ensono, searches for the source.

Why the “IT skills crisis” isn’t what it seems - Techerati

Whatever the company, whatever the sector, there’s one phrase at the
top of the agenda for every IT director: the ‘skills crisis’.Undeniably, the crisis is a very real problem for IT, with
significant consequences for the competitiveness of UK businesses and
the economy at large. Recent Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) research starkly
illustrated this problem, revealing that 40 per cent of organisations
believe their efforts to implement digital transformation are hampered
by a lack of staff and skills.As the coronavirus emergency develops, these skills challenges are
set to aggravate further. Mainframe operations, in particular, may be
put under pressure, creating issues for mission critical workloads like
on-premise SAP.Needless to say, businesses need to address the skills crisis at its root? But what exactly is the root?...

The education problem The third and final cause of the skills crisis is, of course, education.

Currently, IT education in schools still focuses on the absolute
basics: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and so on. For a generation
that is digitally native and already familiar with these programmes,
this kind of curriculum is disappointing and pitched far below where it
should be.Read more... Source: Techerati

As lockdown continues, now is a good time to upskill yourself. Digital skills are highly prized by employers - here's how to gain them, according to Katie Russell, Digital Lifestyle Writer at The Telegraph.

We have rounded up some of the best courses for how you can improve your digital skills in lockdown Photo: PeopleImages/iStockphoto

Whether you have been furloughed, or simply want to capitalise on the
time you’ve saved on your commute, lockdown is a great opportunity to upskill yourself.

One of the best ways to do this is to improve your digital skills. At
the beginning of the year, some of the most in-demand hard skills were
cloud computing, artificial intelligence, analytical reasoning,
blockchain and user experience design, according to LinkedIn.

“Digital skills are one of the hottest topics,” agrees Simon Nelson, CEO of FutureLearn.
He cites data analysis, data visualisation, coding, understanding
digital business, and digital and social media marketing as some of the
most in-demand skills in the modern workplace...

If you want to improve your skills, you don’t need to go back to
university. There are a number of online courses available for gaining
digital skills - many of which are free. Read more... Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Online learning continues to surge globally with 3X the number of
professionals using LinkedIn Learning in April versus February, says Hari Srinivasan, Vice President of Product Management - Linkedin Learning.

The Top Skill this Week: How to Give and Receive Feedback (And Free Courses to Help You Get Better at It)

When we
looked into the skills our members were learning, we saw an interesting
one rise in popularity: Feedback -- how to give and receive it.

Now,
it’s no secret that this is an important skill to have in order to be
successful in your career. In fact, when managers provide performance
feedback to employees, those employees are 2x more likely to believe
that they can meet their personal career goals, according to recently released Glint data.

Why might this skill be even more important to master now? Many
of us are in a virtual workplace and have lost some of the natural
interactions and feedback loops that tend to happen in the office.
Giving and receiving both positive and constructive feedback in the
right way can go a long way towards keeping people engaged and
motivated...

Here are four courses that can help you give and receive feedback, which are free for you through the end of June:Read more... Source: The Learning Blog

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About Me

Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.